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Sunday, February 07, 2010

ASU Sigma Chi's Accused Of Sodomy and Rape

Woman Says Frat Boys Drugged & Raped Her

By JAMIE ROSS

PHOENIX (CN) - Members of Arizona State's Sigma Chi fraternity drugged and sodomized a woman at a toga party, the woman says in Maricopa County Court. She claims the Sigma Chi chapter at ASU has a history of code of conduct violations and "sexual violent offenses" including hazing, forced drug use and animal abuse. The plaintiff, a former student at ASU and member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, went with other sorority members to Sigma Chi's toga party at a sushi restaurant which the fraternity had rented for the night. She says she was given alcohol there though she was just 19 years old. At the restaurant, she says, Matt Potter, a Sigma Chi member, gave her an alcoholic drink "that had been spiked with a drug designed to incapacitate her and impair her memory." She says her memory of the night was impaired by the drink, until she woke up the next day at the Sigma Chi house with severe rectal pain, without her purse and some of her clothing. She says a friend took her to Tempe St. Luke's Hospital, where a sexual assault examination determined that she had been assaulted and "exposed to bodily fluids" through anal and vaginal penetration. She claims that members of Sigma Chi and her sorority identified David Gallagher, a Sigma Chi member, as one of her assailants. She says Gallagher went by the nickname "Therapist" - i.e. "The Rapist" - at the fraternity. The woman says she suffers from severe post traumatic stress and dropped out of ASU after suffering panic attacks and fear while on campus. She says the ASU placed the fraternity on probation in 2003 for bruising pledges by paddling their buttocks, and that ASU received a report of "screams for help and a possible violent sexual assault" in the house in that time. In 2005, Sigma Chi members allegedly mutilated and decapitated a woman's pet cat, and caused thousands of dollars of damage to a San Diego hotel. They also harassed other hotel guests, according to the complaint. And she says Sigma Chi hazed Alpha Phi sorority pledges in 2006 by forcing them to unwillingly participate in "girl on girl" activities and stripteases. The Sigma Chi House Corporation of Epsilon Upsilon is also named as a defendant in the complaint.

The woman seeks punitive damages for civil conspiracy, assault and battery. She is represented by LaShawn D. Jenkins.